Lightning Bolt

You may say to yourself “this place looks different then I remember”. ” Did you get a haircut or something?” What this old thing! yea I gave the site a breath of new life while working on other sites yet to be unveiled.

One tree is still here and still very much engaged with the love of wood. ( Please keep your minds out of the gutter) Many projects are being dreamed and planned as we speak (type). In other news my other professional (sometimes semi) professional life is lately been a bit like playing a lightning round of chess but instead of pawns being used its pieces of wood and power tools. I am trimming and building the cabinets for a small home we built and the way it’s played out I’m doing it “all by myself” yea let that song settle into your subconscious and by morning you will want to reach into your nostrils and rip your brain out. Anyway as I was saying I am trimming and building cabinets for a small guest house that is set on a little over 1,700 acres which has the Brazos river flowing through it. With the boss (dad) out-of-town I normally don’t see anyone else except for the occasional horse, hawk or ranch hand. Other than being a little lonesome,dangerous and occasionally really needing someone to lend a helping hand while handling all of the sheet goods and hanging the upper cabinet boxes it’s been relaxing in a way. Just me my tools my wood and my music cranked up and the continuous chess game (okay maybe just checkers but you get the point) your mind plays while designing and building cabinets simultaneously. I believe for me it is a good thing for both my mind and my body to be tired at the end of the day and for this I am very grateful and thankful. When both are tired its more difficult to hear the (voices) and when you do hopefully its a song like the one below playing in the background.

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3 comments on “Lightning Bolt”

Digging the new design and logo! And you know that saying, “Hell is other people”? Sometimes there can be great joy in working by yourself or with just one or two other people rather than an office full of tools (not the kind that are useful). I’m coming at this from a grass/greener perspective, I realize.

They say that writing is a lonely profession. I don’t agree. When I am writing I am surrounded by a veritable universe of voices and souls and remembered admonishment from teachers I listened to and bits of advice I picked up along the way and the characters I am illustrating and there is always the Muse and the Voice and then the craft, the learned things…these friends and tormenters surround me as I laugh and cry and argue and discover…

Wouldn’t you agree? When alone with a piece of wood or a stack of material or a bunch of doors or just having one beer too many at the end of the day in a building (house, restaurant, office, barn) I am not alone: there are the anticipated occupants and the building inspectors and the money folks and me and a space that, having given all these things considerable thought for half a century, almost, I know a little about and yeah, when they close the door or pull open the cabinet or flip the switch or stand by the window it is not luck that made these things as good as they are; it is not luck but craft and effort and the myriad people who got us there.

I hope that makes sense. I have just spent several weeks remodeling a half-dozen mcDonald’s and to use the word craft seems sacrilegious, almost, but yeah, there is a little art there, too, not the least of which is relating to the co-workers and boss-monsters.

Art is long and life is short but still being here, I suppose the least we can do is our best. Thanks for listening, Tohner.

TJC,
I do agree whole heatedly in respect to the voices they are many and some are haunting. I am glad to see your busy and hopefully reaping a little of the benifits. Though selfishly I do miss when you were less busy and able to post more but work we must and craft is craft no matter the abode. I believe art lies in all craft that is honest and it is up to all of us to keep it that way. We gunslingers are hired guns and sometimes the jobs don’t require the art just the craft.